Last year (when these sorts of things were still possible), Tati and I went to go see the play “Cambodian Rock Band” at Victory Gardens
Playwright Lauren Yee tells a semi-autobiographical story of her father’s youth in a rock band, and their eventual flight from Cambodia during the coming of the Khmer Rouge
It featured the music of Dengue Fever, an American band devoted to the unique Cambodian sounds of the 60s
and 70s
This period produced a fusion of khmer styles and the pop rock that filtered in through the british invasion, and the literal american one
It’s a special kind of psych
obviously i had to spend the following sunday searching cambodian rock tunes
My favorite discovery was the singer behind a familiar sample
The “Books of War” mashup of MF Doom and RZA verses over a beat by Rob Viktum
The original is Kuan Komsott, an incredibly haunting ballad by Ros Serey Sothea:
She was born to a peasant family in Battambang province (in the northwest of Cambodia, near the Thai border)
Legend has it she sold boiled snails on the street to help the family makes ends meet
In her teens, she won a regional talent show and attracted the attention of the National Radio Service in Phnom Penh
So she moved to the capital and began the career that would make her “the queen of Cambodian music” or the “Queen with the golden voice” (the latter an actual title bestowed upon her by the honest-to-god King of Cambodia)
Her marriage to fellow singer Sos Mat was marked by jealousy and abuse, and she left him almost immediately
Her musical career mirrors the trajectory of Cambodian popular music, beginning with traditional romantic ballads and then incorporating french and american influences in the late 60s (Armed Forces Radio played a key role in this, as well as student political and cultural movements)
“Cambodian Rock Band” details the terrifying rise of the Khmer Rouge, and the increasing desperation to flea once it became clear what their reign would mean for activists, students, intellectuals, religious leaders, and cultural icons, including musicians
Serey Sothea’s fate is undetermined
She was almost certainly killed by the Khmer Rouge, though the details of her flight, disguise, internment, and eventual execution are impossible to ascertain, since the destruction was so complete few records survvive
Today’s dose is not one of her most famous
I think it is not quite psych rock-y enough to appeal to the collectors/compilers, but still too heterodox for those looking for classical khmer material
But just right for me 🙂
You can hear the crystal voice that made her a radio and cinema star
Google Translate says the title means something like “Don’t Miss Me”
Whatever the lyrics say, they’re surely tragic
Do peep Dengue Fever (not a band name chosen for search engine optimization):
https://denguefevermusic.com/
